Fancy Socks

[weaktwos]

So, for Christmas my mother gave me two pairs of Cashmere socks. Of course they were presented so nicely. And they were in pretty colors.

I wore them this week, and they are comfy socks. However, I took a moment to clance at the care instructions for them.

They are hand. washable. socks.

So, I'm expected to handwash this type of apparel that I spend the day walking on. They spend the day marinating in my leather shoes. Hand wash, drip dry. Socks.

Yes, perhaps I'm lazy. Well, there's no perhaps about it. I do not see the benefit of hand washing socks. Socks! I cannot wrap my head around it. Hand washing something no one will see except during that one moment where I sit at the office and am sitting with my legs crossed and my coworkers are invited to the 3 Inches of Exposed Cashmere-Socky Ankle Show.

If it were a lovely delicate blouse, I can see hand washing them. But even then I don't like it. I'm totally hooked on washers and dryers.

Clearly cashmere socks are meant for people who have slave labor that will do their hand washing for them.

Perhaps if the streets were paved with silk and I could walk about town sans shoes, I would buy into this notion of hand-washing small, half-hidden apparel. Maybe.

Still, they are pretty.

And I forgot to mine one pair out of my laundry. They were not hand washed. We'll see what happened to them.

In conclusion, I find that the benefits that cashmere socks are offset with the cost of care requirements. I'm not experiencing a net increase in utility.

Comments

[trillian42.livejournal.com]

It's not a matter of hand washing them because they're fancy, it's just the properties of the fiber. If you washed them in a cold load, you should be ok, although they won't last as long. But if you wash them in a warm to hot load, they will felt and shrink, because cashmere is technically a wool. Cashmere is delicate no matter what body part you're wearing it on.

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I understand that it's because of the type of fiber. I think my issue is that such a delicate fiber is not a good candidate for socks. Already just walking on them all day should damage them.

[trillian42.livejournal.com]

It will kind of felt them, yes. Make them house socks if you want them to last a while. Only wear them when you're lounging around, etc.

[pacalissanctum.livejournal.com]

It's because cashmere is a delicate fiber, blahblah. I have 3 prs. of cashmere socks.

I don't handwash JACK in my house.

This is why washers have more than one cycle and why mesh laundry bags were invented for when you are too lazy to cycle it properly.

I don't handwash my bras either, though I do hang those to dry.

I don't iron anymore, either. I either use Downy Wrinkle Release (preferred) or go to the cleaners (only when I have an interview).

[pacalissanctum.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, I do iron. My quilt fabric right before I'm ready to cut and sew. That's it though.

[eyow.livejournal.com]

Actually, there's a great deal of discussion among knitters about cashmere. The fiber actually doesn't have as many scales on its surface as wool, so it doesn't felt as well as wool does, making it more machine washable than wool. However, the individual fibers are delicate, so the abuse they get from agitating with your regular clothes in the washer will wear them out faster than if you treat them with a little more care. You should be able to put them in the washer on the delicate cycle, and they'll be okay for a while.

I think your problem right now is volume. If you had a crapload of cashmere socks, you could just put them in the special pile, when it got to critical mass you put them all in the washer on delicate, and then hang them all up to dry. Which is what I do with all of my hand-knit socks.